Passionate about IP! Since June 2003 the IPKat has covered copyright, patent, trade mark, info-tech, privacy and confidentiality issues from a mainly UK and European perspective. The team is Neil J. Wilkof, Annsley Merelle Ward, Nicola Searle, Eleonora Rosati, and Merpel, with contributions from Mark Schweizer. Read, post comments and participate! E-mail the Kats here

The team is joined by Guest Kats Rosie Burbidge, Stephen Jones, Mathilde Pavis, and Eibhlin Vardy, and by InternKats Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo, Hayleigh Bosher, Tian Lu and Cecilia Sbrolli.

Following a successful blogging debut with the copyright-oriented 1709 Blog, Eleonora, who is an Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, accepted the call to join the team after serving a six-month stint as a guest Kat. An Italian-qualified lawyer (avvocato), Eleonora holds an LLM from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from the European University Institute. She is now an associate professor in intellectual property law at the University of Southampton, a guest lecturer at EDHEC Business School in France, a door tenant at specialist IP set 8 New Square, and also runs the e-LAWnora copyright consultancy. A dilettante photographer, she holds the distinction of doing a better Italian accent than any other member of the regular blog team (more details on Eleonora here; Twitterhere).

Mark Schweizer

Mark has been a long-standing friend of the IPKat for a considerable time and has contributed to the blog in various guises over the years. An associate in the Swiss firm of Meyerlustenberger Lachenal, Mark also lectures in intellectual property law at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), and is an adjunct judge at the Federal Patent Court. As well as writing for the IPKat, Mark contributes to the trademark-focussed Class 46 blog. More details on Mark here.

Nicola Searle

As an academic who has held positions in Scotland and currently London, Nicola can be fairly said to have a reputation that extends across the British Isles. Following a spell as Economic Adviser to the UK Intellectual Property Office, she is an EPSRC Digital Economy Fellow at the Institute for Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London. Nicola is now in her second tour of duty as a Kat, having achieved fame and fortune as the Katonomist when she blogged first time around, showing her skills as an IP-focused economist. You can read more about her here.

Annsley Merelle Ward

Better known as the AmeriKat, though not exclusively tied to that tag, Annsley is the kitten (by age) of the team — but you’d never guess it from her efficient research and powerful writing. An intellectual property litigator at Bristows LLP she holds law degrees from University College London and the University of Bristol and has a background in science having studied chemical engineering at the University of New Mexico. Although she specialises in cross-border patent and trade secret litigation in the TMT and life sciences sectors, Annsley's interests span all aspects of contentious IP. She also enjoys reporting on legislative reforms, most recently on the European Unified Patent Court (more details here).

Neil J. Wilkof

Of Counsel to Herzog Fox Neeman, Tel-Aviv, and to Dr Eyal Bressler & Co., Ramat Gan, Neil specialises in technology transfer and computer and internet law. He teaches and writes extensively on IP issues, being co-author of the current edition of the standard Sweet & Maxwell work on Trade Mark Licensing and a major contributor to theIP Financeweblog. As readers of his work will know, Neil rarely confines himself to the straitjacket of IP law when economic, philosophical or historical issues can be effectively brought to bear (more details here).

Guest Kats and InternKats

Rosie Burbidge

An English qualified senior IP lawyer at Fox Williams LLP,Rosie cut her litigation teeth on patent litigation and has now graduated to design, trade mark and copyright issues with a sprinkling of breach of confidence. She has several years blogging experience under her belt from Art & Artifice which she founded back in 2010. More details on Rosie here and on Twitter here.

Stephen Jones

Stephen has had a long and varied career as an IP solicitor and UK and European patent and trade mark attorney. He has worked at four law firms in London (including two in the "magic circle”), with a leading patent attorney firm and in house. He was most recently a partner and then consultant at Baker & McKenzie in London where he practised for 17 years. Stephen is a visiting professor at the University of Law, visiting lecturer at University College London and a tutor on the IP Diploma Course of the University of Oxford. He is the current Vice President of CIPA, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.

Mathilde Pavis

Mathilde is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Exeter. Before joining Exeter Law School, Mathilde was a research fellow at the US Library of Congress in Washington DC. She co-founded in 2014 a network ‘New IP Lawyers’ gathering early career researchers and practitioners in intellectual property law. Mathilde’s interests in IP focuses on comparative copyright,performers’ rights and trade mark, and more broadly on the interaction between IP law and cultural policies in the creative industries.

Eibhlin Vardy

A senior associate in the IP team at Stephenson Harwood in London, Eibhlin advises on disputes involving all IP rights, and has a particular interest in hard fought patent and trade secrets litigation. Eibhlin is no stranger to the Kat, having already provided numerous guest posts before her arrival onto the team. Eibhlin originally hails from Holywood in Northern Ireland, but moved to (warmer and drier) Cambridge to study law, before training at a magic circle firm. Eibhlin's street in South East London has recently seen an influx of new kittens, and Eibhlin can now be found stalking them paparazzi style to obtain photos for this blog. Fun Fact: As a child, Eibhlin featured in the music video for Van Morrison's 1989 hit "Have I told you lately that I love you" – bizarrely Eibhlin didn't discover this until she bumped into the director some 23 years later. You can read more about Eibhlin here.

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo

Verónica has the honour of being the first TechieKat. She holds an LL.M. from Maastricht University and Specialization from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, both in IP Law. She was also selected to attend the Summer School organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Academy of European Public Law in Greece. She has extensive experience in the prosecution, enforcement, and litigation of IPRs. Before joining Pointer Brand Protection, she provided legal advice to multinational corporations, associations, and SMEs in Mexico and other countries. Verónica also contributes to the IPTango blog, is a member of the editorial board of The Trademark Lawyer Magazine and IP mentor at HighTechXL. More details on Verónica here.

Hayleigh Bosher

Hayleigh is Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Coventry University. She is also a Visiting Lecturer in IP at the University of the Arts London (UAL) and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Intellectual Property, Policy and Management. She holds a PhD in Copyright Law from Bournemouth University, under the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship Award. Her thesis focused on digital copyright infringement by way of copying and communication to the public online and the application of law to the internet. Whilst at CIPPM Hayleigh has been involved in a number of research projects including Copyrightuser.org. More on Hayleigh here.

Tian Lu

An IP enthusiast from the other side of the Eurasian continent, Tian is currently pursuing her Doctoral degree in Maastricht University, having previously completed the advanced masters program in Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management there. Her research area is the protection of famous trade marks in China, EU and the U.S. Tian is also one of the founders of a China-based online European law platform: The European Law Vision.

Cecilia Sbrolli

Cecilia is an Italian IP enthusiast. She obtained an LL.M. in European, Competition and IP Law from the Université de Liège and a Master's Degree from the Università di Bologna. She participated together with the Liège LL.M. team in the Oxford University IP Moot in 2016 and interned in a top IP firm in Brussels.

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